System Failure- short story

Here is the final short story I wrote for American lit class. :)

A day late for the blog (Thursday/Friday is when I upload writing and it's Saturday) but here it is.

This is a small glimpse into a larger, more complex story I've been developing recently. Science fiction with a "modern" trend of dystopian.

System Failure

Dr. Peter Somar trudged through the bustling streets. All the laughter and chatter of the world paled in comparison to the throbbing pain in his mind. It must be a mistake. I must be a mistake. He desperately pleaded with himself. How could the system fail in such a way?

The smell of coffee brought him back to his senses. A quick scan of his wallet revealed he had enough money to purchase the whole café if he wanted. Well, he’d settle for a small cup right now.

The man at the register smiled warmly at him and asked if he’d like it with cream or non-fat milk. Gazing out the window, Peter absentmindedly answered yes for both.

He delicately grasped the cup when he took it from the man’s grasp without revealing the tremble in his fingers. With a smile and nod to the cashier he departed the café.

I have to get away. No peace and quiet here.

Home was near. But he knew what awaited him there. The computer would have sent off the results immediately. It was only an hour at the most they would grant him before he would be tracked down and required to go in for questioning.

Peter checked his watch. Seven O’clock. Twenty minutes left. A deep sigh escaped him. Ahhh might as well head back now.

They were waiting in his kitchen. A woman with copper eyes had taken the liberty to boil water and make herself a cup of tea.

“Diana.” His shoulders sagged and he leaned against the cold counter. It was black marble, the sort of stone that endures. “What are They saying?”

“Hey Peter.” The casual greeting didn’t suit her formal attire. Her eyes held a faint glow if you knew to look for it. “They are saying that you have discovered something that could compromise the safety of the city.” She paused.

Peter’s hold on his paper cup tightened.

“In fact they are saying that you are the something. You could topple this society as we know it.”

With precision Peter set his cup on the counter. A faint clack sounded. He moved forward and bent down so he was eye level with Diana.

The narrow point of a shooter from one of Diana’s guards pressed into his neck. Peter ignored it. His body began to go cold and he could feel sweat in his clenched fists.

“What. Are. They. Saying?” He ground out each word.

She leaned closer. “I can feel the fever radiating heat from your body right now. You don’t have much time. That is… unless you submit to our questioning. We can fix you. I don’t know what went wrong, but we’ll have a look at you and find out. Such an occurrence will never happen again.”

“No. You know what went wrong. Somebody altered a chip on purpose. Somebody meant for the program to go wrong. One little mistake, purposefully inserted among millions of perfect copies can undo the world.”

They stared at each other intently.

”Who did it?” A wave of nausea rolled over him. He tugged a chair out from the table and settled into it so that he was still facing Diana. “Do you know who messed with the system?” The shooter had moved away once it became obvious Peter had no intentions of harming her.

“We don’t—”

Peter interrupted. “You control the human race at the touch of thousands of buttons. You could have the whole human race except for yourselves wiped out from Black Plague in a week and then plan for Wyoming to die of measles. Don’t lie to me and tell me you don’t know.” His voice began to rise in pitch. “Who was brilliant enough to infiltrate your system and make sure that I received a faulty code in my chip?”

“We don’t know.” Her voice was firm, cold, and quiet.

“Why is it I received the bad chip? There must have been hundreds of others to pick from, there was no way to tell that I would become a doctor and capable of discovering my flaw – Capable of altering the world?”

“We don’t know. I’m sorry. But we can fix you.”

“You know I was going to turn myself in. I was going to let you take me. Who wants to live a life knowing you have a flawed code? Especially a doctor who could infect hundreds of patients in a day? But now that I think about it… How is it the perfect system can be tampered with? Maybe you’re beloved system isn’t the perfect way to do it.”

Diana stood while her chair screeched across the floor. She glared at him. “Don’t you dare suggest such a thing. You are a perfectly educated man. We went through the same tests and courses together. You know that the system is blameless. It was just a silly troublemaker who wanted to make a point!”

“A silly troublemaker wouldn’t be able to make a point in the first place. You must have a traitor in the system and you know it. Now believe it.” Peter massaged his temples. The ache in his head had spread throughout the rest of his body which was experiencing flashes of hot and cold.

“Diana, have you ever considered the possibility we were lied to? That maybe our minds are being fed misinformation?”

The look she gave him said enough.

“I’ve had enough from you Dr. Somar.” At that moment Peter knew he had ceased to exist. He was no longer Peter, her former classmate and friend. He was Dr. Somar, a threat to the city and a threat to the man she had always idolized as mankind’s savior. She nodded at the guards. Two of them helped him to his feet where he swayed.

“Get him out to the car. We’ll drive to the center where Mr. Aragewill question him.”

They injected a sedative into his neck. His last drowsy thought was of the Mercy Slayers. He would never be able to tell them what he had discovered. Peter closed his eyes.

__________

“We hide things. We steal the things the world says are the most dangerous things in the world; the things that will bring back our mortality.

Humans are supposed to die. We’re supposed to ‘get sick.’ But we don’t.

We are murdered.

We are taken away if we don’t fit in with the criteria.

But why? Why are we isolated from others? Why do our codes come across as flawed?

Is this how humanity should be controlled?

If it comes down to being forced to live this life; then we will remove our codes and never have to suffer the consequences.”

-- from the Creed of the Mercy Slayers